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Elton Sawyer stands by NASCAR restart decision call involving Ryan Blaney, Kyle Larson

Nick Profile Picby:Nick Geddes•07/23/24•

NickGeddesNews

NASCAR
Mike Dinovo-USA TODAY Sports

Elton Sawyer, NASCAR senior vice president of competition, said Tuesday the sanctioning body made the “right decision” in letting the first overtime restart continue during Sunday’s Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway as race-leader Brad Keselowski ran out of fuel coming to green.

Sawyer, speaking on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, admitted it was a “bang-bang call,” but ultimately felt it was best to let the restart play out with Ryan Blaney on the outside and Kyle Larson, running P3 at the time, rolling up next to him on the inside.

“That was a bang-bang call. Obviously, we’re coming to green,” Sawyer said, via Dustin Long of NBC Sports. “We’ve already gone through the choose process, thinking everything’s fine. We’re starting to kind of focus on the restart zone there, making sure everybody’s in line where they need to be and then [Keselowski] pulls off. … [Larson] starts to roll up [to the front row] like he should do to get side by side with [Blaney].

“All of this is happening extremely fast as [Blaney] becomes the control [car], doesn’t get lane choice. … So, the way it unfolded is the way it did and naturally it looked fine. We’ll go back and just see if there’s anything we would have done different. … Even if we, hypothetically, would have thrown the caution, we still wouldn’t have went back through a choose process. We had already done that.

“[Blaney] would have still been the control vehicle but would not have the opportunity of lane choice. So, I think as you look back on it, you kind of digest it now, again, still feel like it was the right decision to let it play out.”

Kyle Larson gets a big break from NASCAR on first overtime restart

That call had a dramatic effect on the outcome of the race, as Larson cleared Blaney in Turn 1 before a caution came out. Larson held onto his lead on the following overtime restart to win his fourth race of the season.

Blaney, however, was perplexed as to why NASCAR allowed the restart to go on after Keselowski ran out of fuel. Speaking with his team on the radio, Blaney accused NASCAR of giving the win to Larson, whom he referred to as its “fu*king golden boy.”

“There’s no way they should’ve let that go green,” Blaney said. “That’s ridiculous. They just gave it to him [Larson]. It’s fu*king over, I’m on the top. I ain’t gonna win from the top. Gave it to fu*king golden boy. Son of a b*tch.”